Night Terrors

Oh my...what a night! Between Byron and Lily it is fair to say that Trevor and I didn’t get much sleep. Naturally, when there is a new baby in the house one expects to be sleep deprived, and that we were. However, Lily wasn’t the cause of the sleep deprivation; Byron was.

A bit of background might be helpful. Byron spent the day with Nanna and Grandad Bruce. They took him to a park, then on a steam train ride, then to the park again (note: it was 30C and hot). It goes without saying that when he returned home late afternoon he was tired – over tired. It was too late for a nap (and he didn’t want one in the car) so it was a nice early bath, some dinner, a story and then to bed at around 6.30pm.

Trevor and I thought – sweet; he would be off in dream land in no time – out like a light. How wrong were we? Completely!

It took him a little while to get to sleep, but that is nothing out of the ordinary for Byron who generally likes to chat and read for a while. Finally he fell asleep but to our dismay woke up crying and carrying on 2 hours later and then, every hour after that until just after 2am (resulting in Trevor sleeping next to Byron's bed - on the floor).

It is fair to say that when he woke up (well we thought he was awake), he was somewhat disturbed. He was thrashing around in bed, talking, crying and just generally appeared distressed. I tried to comfort him but got absolutely no where, so Trevor tried. He didn’t get to far trying to console him either (in fact, I think it was him who needed consoling afterwards; his anger was ripe). Naturally, we were both getting agitated ourselves; especially at Byron who we thought was just being ‘difficult’. Whilst I thought he may have been ‘asleep’ at some point, the more he carried on the more I thought, no way he must be awake particularly given the way he was carrying on.

Last night was not an isolated event. He was somewhat difficult on Saturday night – although no where near as bad as last night.

In the midst of my tiredness and confusion today I rang the child health centre just to make sure that I didn’t need to take him to the doctor (which my mother suggested I do – the doctor that is). I was advised that he was most likely suffering from night terrors! Apparently, (according to Dr Google) a night terror is a sleep disturbance that can be very upsetting to parents (oh you think!). When children have night terrors, they usually scream or cry out and appear to be frightened, as if they're reacting to a nightmare. They may sit up in bed, thrash their arms and legs, and seem terrified (hmmm this was Byron). When parents try to calm their children during night terrors, they often find that their children do not seem to recognise them and do not respond to them (tick). This is because children having night terrors are still asleep. Their eyes may be wide open, but in fact they are asleep.

Dr Google - What Parents Can Do?

*Go to your children. When parents hear their children cry out, they should go to them as quickly as possible. Parents can try to comfort their children by holding them close or by rubbing their backs. Children may not even know their parents are there, and parents may not be able to comfort their children, but parents will be able to keep their children from hurting themselves (how scary). Parents should follow their children's leads. They should comfort their children if they seem to want it, and should let their children be if they don't seem to want comforting.

*Stay with your children. It's important that parents stay nearby until their children resume quiet sleep. Some children get up and walk around during a night terror. If this happens, children can easily get hurt.

*Make sure your children get enough sleep. Night terrors happen more often when children are very tired (seems to be the major factor for Byron).

*Don't try to wake your children. As long as children are not hurting themselves, there is no need for parents to wake them. Parents' attempts to wake their children may prolong the night terror (oops...we tried waking him constantly).

*Turn on a light. This will help calm parents down and will be comforting to children should they wake up (must remember this one).

*Remain calm. It's important that parents try to remain calm because their anxiety may frighten their children if they do wake up (HUH - who thought of this rule? Rather difficult at 2am).

In a bid to avoid a repeat of the last few nights, I:

1) made sure Byron had a day sleep and wasn’t to overtired;
2) got him ready for bed by 7pm; and
3) gave him a lovely massage with some essential oils at bed time.

So far so good...he hasn’t woken up yet.

Edited to add: we managed to avoid any repeats and he slept through – still muttering in his sleep every now and then…but no night terrors. Thank God!!!